it made her very quiet, she who was
quiet by nature. The land where it is always afternoon chills at first
and subdues all lively sentiments. The sense of having no particular
interest, took possession of her mind as if it had been an absorbing
interest, and drew a veil between her and the other concerns of life.

This was not at all the case with Mrs. Warrender, who came home with all
the agreeable sensations of a new beginning, ready to take up new lines
of existence, and to make a cheerful centre of life for herself and all
who surrounded her. If any woman should feel with justice that she has
reached the Afterwards, and has done with her active career, it should
be the woman who has just settled down after her husband's death to
the humbler house provided for her widowhood apart from all her old
occupations and responsibilities. But in reality there was no such
sentiment in her mind. "You'll in your girls again be courted." She had
hanging about her the pleasant reflection of that wooing, never put into
words, with which Dick Cavendish had filled the atmosphere, and which
had produced upon the chief object of it so very different an effect;
and she had the less pleasurable excitement of Theo's circumstances, and
of all that was going on at Markland, a romance in which her interest
was almost painful, to stimulate her thoughts. The Eustace Thynnes did
not count for much, for their love-making had been very mild and regular,
but still, perhaps, they aided in the general quickening of life. She
had three different histories thus going on around her, and she was
placed in a new atmosphere, in which she had to play a part of her own.
When Chatty and she sat down together in the new drawing-room for the
first time with their work and their plans, Mrs. Warrender's talk was of
their new neighbours and the capabilities of the place. "The rector is
not a stupid man," she said, in a reflective tone. The proposition was
one which gently startled Chatty. She lifted her mild eyes from her
work, with a surprised look.

"It would be very sad for us if he was stupid," she said.

"And Mrs. Barham still less so. What I am thinking of is society,
not edification. Then there is Colonel Travers, whom we used to see
occasionally at home, the brother, you know, of ----. An old soldier is
always a pleasant element in a little place. The majority will of course
be women like ourselves, Chatty."

"Yes, mamma, there are always a great many